Andy Porter joins Nantwich Town coaching staff

Nantwich Town have recruited Andy Porter who joins the club’s first-team coaching staff.

Porter, born in Holmes Chapel, brings a wealth of experience to The Dabbers backroom staff after spells as caretaker manager at Chester, York City and Port Vale.

He was also assistant manager at Hereford working under Martin Foyle from June 2012 to March 2014.

Porter had a successful playing career.

He played mostly at Vale Park where he made 447 appearances for Port Vale making him the sixth highest appearance maker for the Valiants.

In his time at Vale he won two promotions, lifted the Auto-Glass Trophy in 1993 and he was also involved in FA Cup giant killings against Everton and Tottenham Hotspur.

After leaving in 1998, Porter joined Wigan Athletic where he played 21 games before joining Chester City in 2000 and he played a pivotal role in winning the old Nationwide Variety Club Trophy in 2001.

At the end of that year, he became caretaker manager where he managed just the one game which was a 3-1 win over Hayes.

After leaving Chester in 2002 he had spells at Northwich Victoria and Kidsgrove Athletic, before returning to Port Vale in 2004 where he made four appearances under his former team-mate Martin Foyle.

In 2006, he retired from playing to focus on coaching where he stayed at Vale as youth coach and achieved a large amount of success with the youth team in 2007 and 2008.

Porter oversaw the Valiants into the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup where they beat Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur before losing 5-2 to eventual finalist Chelsea.

In 2008 he took over as first team manager at Vale Park after the departure of Lee Sinnot.

Porter was in charge at Vale for three-and-a-half months before Dean Glover took over as permanent manager.

Since then Porter has been Foyle’s assistant at Hereford and York City before more recently working two jobs as Port Vale under 11s coach and regional scout for Northampton Town.

Porter made his debut in the dugout for Nantwich in Saturday’s dramatic 2-2 draw with Ashton United where goals from Shaun Miller and Sean Cooke helped 10-man Dabbers comeback from two goals down to pick up a valuable point.

Nantwich manager Dave Cooke said: “Andy has bags of experience and a will to win, both of which will help as we get towards the business end of the season.”